Sarah Bourke

Sarah Bourke

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Stumble Upon

The story of how I came across interning with Inhabitat, Ecouterre, and Ecofabulous is a funny one. Three weeks before my senior internship proposal was due to my senior dean at Branson, I found myself in a panic. I had no idea what I wanted to do for my internship, and I was having trouble coming up with ideas. I wanted to do something that involved working in the real world and interning with a company that works closely with the environment.








Babysitting late one Saturday night, I found myself flipping through the pages of a travel magazine, desperate to read something having just put the kids to sleep. I came to a page with an incredible image and story of a Yellow Treehouse RestaurantThe Redwoods Treehouse, located in New Zealand. The story was fascinating and it cited Inhabitat in the article.

I went home later that evening and typed Inhabitat into my search engine.
The website was fabulous! My immediate thought was, what a cool internship. I typed "intern" into the search engine on the website and came across an article from 2008 that said Inhabitat was hiring college interns in New York City and San Francisco. Although the article was from three years ago, and although I wasn't a college student, the idea of working with Inhabitat just across the Golden Gate Bridge, or even in New York City, sounded amazing. I emailed inhabitat@gmail.com, simply stating that I am a senior at The Branson School, I am looking for an unpaid internship during the month of May, and that Inhabitat sounds like a wonderful, exciting company. Within an hour, I received an email from Jill Fehrenbacher, CEO of Inhabitat and Ecouterre, who was quick to mention that she went to Branson from 1990-1994! We set up a time to speak over the phone, and I quickly found myself doing an internship in New York City and San Francisco with her amazing company. She also suggested contacting Zem Joaquin, Founder and CEO of Ecofabulous. With her suggestion, I went ahead and emailed Zem about the prospect of interning with her. A week or so later, I was set up with the internship of my dreams-- working directly with Inhabitat and Ecouterre in New York City, and working with Ecofabulous at home in Marin County. 










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